Ulster County area

Population and density of Ulster County

The Census Bureau estimates that 183,330 people lived in Ulster County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #383 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #20 of 62 in New York. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 181,835, the population has grown by 1,495 (+0.8%), compared with −1% for New York as a whole.

With 1,124.2 square miles of land, that is 163 people per square mile (63 per km²), placing Ulster County #734 nationally for density and #26 in New York. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New York median is 112. Put another way, there are about 3.9 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Ulster County

Ulster County is divided into 21 cities and towns. In New York, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Kingston city, with 23,942 residents (13.1% of the county). The largest by land is Wawarsing town, at 130.5 mi², or 11.6% of the county’s land. Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, New Paltz town grew fastest since then (+8.6%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Ulster County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Ulster County is a central county of the Kingston, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Ulster County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 1,124.2 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #267 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #250 by population. It belongs to the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

63 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Ulster County; 55 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

124011240412406124091241012411124121241612417124191242012428124291243212433124351244012441124431244612448124491245312455124561245712458124611246312464124651246612471124721247512477124801248112483124841248612487124891249012491124931249412495124981251512525125281254212547125481256112566125891272512740127581276312789

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Ulster County

Ulster County shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 5 of them. The largest neighbor is Delaware County (1,442.6 mi²) and the smallest is Columbia County (634.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Ulster County forms a block of 6,424.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.5%.

How big is Ulster County compared with U.S. states?

Ulster County has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.7 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). New York’s county land could hold about 42 areas the size of Ulster County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 33.5 miles (54 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Ulster County?

Ulster County has more land than 2,662 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Ulster County at #613 nationally by total area, 53 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 3.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Ulster County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.